Alan Swann

City of Peterborough had to battle hard to maintain their title challenge in the East Premier A Division.

In a game that was not of the highest quality, City started well and scored from their first attack inside the first minute when a Joe Finding cross was deflected into the roof of the net by Ross Ambler.

Ross Ambler scored for City of Peterborough at Chelmsford.

City continued to take the game to Chelmsford, creating a number of good goal scoring chances, and short corners, as the Chelmsford defence struggled to cope with the pressure. The third short corner won after 15 minutes was converted by Finding for a 2-0 cushion, which accurately reflected City’s domination up to that point.

However, City were definitely guilty of poor decision making in their finishing, meaning that the door remained open for Chelmsford,

Possibly due to scoring so early, City took their foot off the pedal, and the standard of their hockey slipped, enabling Chelmsford were able to grab a foothold in the game, winning their first short corner after 20 minutes, the rebound from which they flicked into the net.

The momentum was now with Chelmsford, and they soon scored a second goal from open play, meaning the teams were level at the interval.

In the second half of the game City failed to create the same number of clear chances that they had in the first half, and could have been made to pay for not taking those chances, had it not been for ill-discipline from the Chelmsford players – resulting in a series of three yellow cards, and a penalty stroke.

City forward Ben Read was wiped out by a slide tackle from behind from a Chelmsford player, which resulted in a penalty flick, and a yellow card. Finding converted the flick for a deserved, if not convincing 3-2 lead. COP were able to see out the game relatively comfortably as two further yellow cards for Chelmsford meant they played most of the final 10 minutes with only nine players.

This was Peterborough’s sixth consecutive win, and they remain second in the table, one point behind leaders Wapping.

Man of the match went to James Fisher, who put in a great high energy defensive display.